With wildfires burning in Greece and Turkey, large chunks of the Mediterranean parched as drought spreads across the region, and all just weeks after the world experienced its hottest days on record, Celeste Saulo and I sit down to a sweltering lunch. It is almost 30C and we are eating outside on the shores of Lake Geneva.
“It’s really hot,” says Saulo, who has spent nearly 40 years studying the weather. In January, she became secretary-general of the UN’s World Meteorological Organization, the first woman to lead the global agency that focuses on weather, climate and water in its 150-year history. The move, which saw her leave her job as the head of Argentina’s meteorological service and relocate to Switzerland, has made her one of the most high-profile climate scientists in the world.
The covered terrace of Restaurant La Perle du Lac, in Geneva’s leafy Mon Repos park, with views of Mont Blanc across the lake, affords some respite from the August sun. Still, it feels a bit on the nose to be sweating through our meal as we discuss how climate record after climate record was repeatedly smashed in 2023 and 2024.